Settings and state.

LogAce separates durable preferences and source state from rebuildable working data. That keeps profiles, bookmarks, layouts, histories, and sessions available without treating downloaded snapshots or live spools as permanent records.

SETTINGS View → Settings

THEME Ctrl+Y

SOURCE .las sidecar

SETS named sessions

§ STA·1 Application Settings global presentation and storage

Preferences shared by the whole application.

grid

Row separator lines

Add a dedicated visual line between adjacent logical records. This can make dense structured logs easier to scan, especially when records have wrapped cells.

grid

Column separator padding

Choose how many spaces appear on each side of vertical separators. A value of 0 retains the compact grid.

theme

Global color theme

Use Ctrl+Y or View → Theme to change the palette for the whole application. The selected theme is stored as a global preference.

highlight

Profile highlight rules

Ctrl+H manages reusable row highlight rules for the active profile. Permanent rules follow that profile; quick h highlights remain temporary view state.

storage

Local-file sidecars

Keep state beside each source as <log>.las, or place it in LogAce's state directory under a SHA-256-based name. Existing state is still checked through the alternate location as a fallback.

geoip

MaxMind databases

Set custom City and ASN .mmdb paths for GeoIP virtual columns. Each field can be browsed, reset to the default location, or cleared.

VIRTUAL COLUMNS → VIEW CONTROLS →

§ STA·2 Per-source State what returns after reopening

Durable state follows the source identity.

A sidecar stores source-specific analysis and presentation choices. It does not copy the source contents.

Parser and encoding

The selected profile ID, text encoding, and any Ad Hoc profile definition are retained so the source can be interpreted the same way next time.

Position and bookmarks

The current physical anchor line and bookmark collection are restored against the source.

Layouts and virtual columns

Column visibility, widths, wrapping, maximum cell height, and derived virtual columns are stored per profile.

Expression filter

The expression text and its enabled state persist, allowing a saved predicate to return active or intentionally disabled.

transient

Per-column filters

Include and exclude values survive Reload and Duplicate while the tab remains open, but they are not written as durable sidecar fields.

transient

Full-text search

The current search term and match navigation state stay with the live view rather than the source sidecar.

transient

Active wrap toggle

F7's current on/off state survives Reload and Duplicate in memory. The underlying per-column wrap configuration remains part of the durable profile layout.

§ STA·3 Directories platform locations

State is durable; cache is rebuildable.

macOSuser library

state  ~/Library/Application Support/LogAce
cache  ~/Library/Caches/LogAce

LinuxXDG

state  ${XDG_STATE_HOME:-~/.local/state}/logace
cache  ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-~/.cache}/logace

Windowslocal app data

state  %LOCALAPPDATA%\LogAce\State
cache  %LOCALAPPDATA%\LogAce\Cache

Global state files

preferences.json, recent history.json, expression and query histories, user profiles.json, sessions.json, saved SSH connections, and Query Tab definitions live under the state directory.

Source-specific state

Hashed local-file state and source descriptors for remote, cloud, device, listener, archive, merge, and query workflows use dedicated state subdirectories.

Rebuildable working data

Archive and gzip extraction, remote snapshots, live-source spools, merged timelines, stdin, and materialized Query Tab results use the cache directory.

Inspect the active paths

F1 → About reports the resolved state and cache directories, preferences, histories, profiles, GeoIP databases, and individual source spool locations for the running build.

§ STA·4 Sessions named reopenable workspaces

Save a source set, then add it back later.

File → Save Session records the eligible tabs, their order, the active tab, and expression-filter overrides. File → Open Session reopens that set additively beside tabs that are already open.

eligible

Files, archives, and SSH

Local files, archive entries, remote files, and remote journalctl sources have enough stable identity to be reopened.

eligible

Host, cloud, and OTel sources

macOS unified log, Android logcat, AWS, Azure, GCP, OpenTelemetry, and Query Tabs can participate in a named session.

transient

Ephemeral sources are skipped

Docker, Kubernetes, iOS Simulator, local journalctl, syslog sinks, stdin streams, and merged spools are not session entries.

manage

Opening and deleting

Opening a session never replaces the current workspace. Delete in the session picker removes only the saved definition; it does not remove source logs or their per-source state.